Next story in Space

Yes, he is a self-proclaimed space fan and develops computer
games for a living. But he's also the millionaire founder of the
"Ultima Online" computer game franchise, uses a robot to
telecommute between New York and his Austin office, and is one of
the few people ever to pay $30 million for a cosmic trip to the
International Space Station.

And there's one more thing:
Richard Garriott is the son of Owen Garriott, a former NASA
astronaut who flew on the U.S. Skylab station and space shuttle.
He is the first American second-generation spaceflyer ever to
follow a parent off the planet.

It's that combination of spaceflight and computer games that
comes through in "Man on a Mission," a new documentary launching
into theaters today (Jan. 13) across the United States. The film,
directed by veteran documentary director Mike Woolf, chronicles
Garriott's 2008 flight to the International Space Station.
[ Photos:
Richard Garriott's Private Spaceflight ]

Mission: Space

Garriott, 50, grew up in Houston, the home of NASA's Mission
Control at the Johnson Space Center, in a neighborhood filled
with astronauts and their families. He watched his father launch
to the Skylab space station in 1973, and then on a space shuttle
in 1983.

"I kind of grew up in a community where going into space seemed
fairly normal, and not unusual or necessarily difficult,"
Garriott told SPACE.com. "I just assumed that everyone went to
space when they grew up because everyone I knew did go to space
when they grew up."

But Garriott wore glasses, and when he was 13 years old, a NASA
doctor told him that flying in space with less than perfect
eyesight was not in the cards. Instead, he took up computer games
and the moniker "Lord British," built a computer gaming empire
that earned millions and devoted the next few decades to
investing in new companies and technology aimed at allowing
private citizens like him to reach space.

It happened in 2008.

Garriott flew to the space station under a deal with Russia's
Federal Space Agency brokered by the Virginia-based space tourism
company Space Adventures, a firm that has arranged eight such
flights for seven customers (one passenger flew twice) since
2001.
Garriott paid $30 million to launch into orbit aboard a
Russian Soyuz space capsule with two professional astronauts —
one Russian, the other American — who were starting a months-long
mission to the space station.

The view from space is probably the most often touted by
professional astronauts, and Garriott agreed. The experience, he
said, was life-changing, especially when he spotted locations
(like his current home city of Austin) and was able to finally
see the scale of the Earth and humanity's impact on its surface.

Private spaceflight is a growing industry, and with NASA's space
shuttle fleet now retired the U.S. space agency is turning to
commercial companies to build new spaceships to fly American
astronauts to the space station and back.

Garriott said that mode of operation is a stepping stone for the
future of human spaceflight, one that could bring the cost of
spaceflight per person down from the tens of millions to just a
few million dollars — still out of reach for most of the public,
but potentially within the grasp of companies hoping to exploit
the
business side of space.

Private spaceman

Garriott's trip lasted 12 days, enough time to visit the station,
perform a packed schedule of experiments, enjoy the view of Earth
and then return home with the station's outgoing crew. By
coincidence, one of the returning station crew was
cosmonaut Sergei Volkov — whose father was also a noted
Russian cosmonaut.

It's the training for that flight that Woolf uses to kick off
"Man on a Mission," which then follows Garriott through the
spacesuit fittings, emergency drills, spaceflight traditions and
– what Garriott said was the hardest thing about the trip –
learning the Russian language.

Even in 2008, there were some concerns over the safety of
Russia's Soyuz spacecraft after two returning capsules landed in
back-up ballistic modes. The capsule Garriott returned home was
repaired in space in unprecedented spacewalk in which cosmonauts
removed a faulty explosive bolt from the spacecraft.

In the film, Garriott holds up a small metal cylinder, a
bomb-proof container, holding the bolt. The Soyuz fix worked and
Garriott and his crewmates landed in Kazakhstan just fine.
Garriott's video camera catches a spectacular view of re-entry
through his window, an event rarely seen publicly from Russian
spacecraft.

Despite its troubles, Russia's space program has always been
somewhat underappreciated by the American public, which tends to
focus solely on U.S. achievements, Garriott said. He added that
he's confident Russian space officials will overcome their
current challenges and continue their cosmic legacy.

Garriott said there is one thing you won't see in "Man on a
Mission": his science fiction film that he shot while living on
the International Space Station. Called " Apogee
of Fear," the short film included the station's NASA
astronaut crew and follows them as they investigate mysterious
happenings in orbit.

"It does exist. I actually think it's a great film. It's a bit
tongue in cheek and of course the acting quality varies a bit
throughout the film," Garriott said. "NASA has, so far, decided
that since its filmed onboard NASA hardware and uses NASA
astronauts as actors, that they have resisted me releasing it
publicly."

Today, Garriott is in the midst of his latest mission, perhaps
the hardest mission yet: married life. Last year, he wed longtime
friend Laetitia Pichot de Cayeux.

"Man on a Mission" opens Friday (Jan. 13) at select theaters
across the United States.